Therapy Bits

The music thumped relentlessly, a heartbeat drumming through the dimly lit basement, where the walls pulsed with a kaleidoscope of colors. Laughter echoed off the concrete, but it felt hollow—a hollow echo that held the promise of something deeper, something darker.

Emma stood with her friends, a shimmering starfield of their own making. They huddled close, the flickering lights casting shadows that danced like whispers on the wall. "This is going to be epic," Jake declared, his grin impossibly wide as he offered them the small squares of acid. A chorus of "hell yes" followed, and soon they were swallowed by the tide of euphoric anticipation.

Seconds stretched into eternity as the world around them began to warp. Emma’s laughter turned to nervous giggles. The colors morphed, swirling together until they merged into a thick, rolling fog that clung to the corners of her vision. Something shifted inside her, an unease knotting her stomach.

“Are you guys seeing this?” Sam’s voice trembled, shattering the façade of carefree rebellion. The room pulsed, the bass vibrating through their bones—but now it felt different, like a warning. Shadows loomed, stretching unnaturally against the walls, as if they were alive, feeding off their fear.

"Jake?" Emma called, but her voice felt distant, lost in the cacophony. The walls began to ripple, and she caught sight of Jake in a corner, eyes wide and unblinking, his face a mask of terror. “I can’t… I can’t be here,” he gasped, backing away from the shadows that seemed to reach for him.

“Guys, what’s happening?” Sam’s voice cracked, spiraling upwards. The room constricted around them, an invisible hand squeezing tighter with every breath. The laughter faded, replaced by whispers—dark, slithering voices that echoed their insecurities, magnifying every flaw until they felt completely exposed.

Emma stumbled toward the stairs, desperate to escape, but her legs felt like lead. The walls warped in on her, the laughter turned to screams in her head. No place to hide, no refuge from the growing panic. “We need to get out!” she shouted, her throat dry as if all the sunlight had dried into dust, leaving nothing but darkness.

As they scrambled together, battling an unspeakable force, everything they thought they knew fractured. Reality stretched beyond its limits, revealing the fragility of their youth. They stumbled into the night, leaves crunching underfoot like broken glass, the stars above a scattered puzzle too complex to comprehend.

“Did we really just do that?” Sam panted, looking up at the vastness, his eyes wide with a dawning realization. Emma nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks, blurring the boundary between relief and vulnerability.

“We thought we were invincible,” Jake whispered, his voice barely above a breath, but in that moment of shared despair, they all understood. Nothing was ever quite as it seemed, and their innocence, shattered and strewn like confetti in the night air, would never return the same way again.

FOWC With Fandango — Acid – Facts, Fictions & Fantasies (mymindmappings.com)